


Hammer, Anvil, Steel

by marcelo



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Gen, The character list alone should count as a warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 21:31:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17475332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marcelo/pseuds/marcelo
Summary: He doesn't question his own motivations, and doesn't fully understand theirs. That's not the important thing.





	Hammer, Anvil, Steel

Bruce knows.

At some levels, that's surely among the most laughably redundant observations Tim has ever noted to himself. Shiva is training him, daily, on a small patch of woods near Wayne Manor. If he had a thought to spare during the training sessions, he's sure he would imagine himself feeling the network of sensors and recording devices aimed from the Cave at them.

But at other levels... To consider what Shiva does with him -no, does *to* him- in each session with the tacit acceptance of Bruce forces him to reassess both Shiva's and Bruce's attachment to Cassandra. He doesn't, specially, consider particularly telling how they are using him -and it's not a bit less than what he has expected, assumed and counted on them using him- but certain boundaries that seemed to limit and define both Batman and Shiva's spheres of action seem to have been discarded with the goal of turning him into somebody who will be able to defeat Cassandra - and of doing it without killing her.

He knows how powerful a motivator guilt has always been among all of his families, but he had predicted that Bruce would, at most, put up some suitably symbolic and highly neurotic memento mori to properly traumatize the inevitable next Batgirl. Instead, he has all but surrendered both his home and 'his' Robin into Shiva's hands. It suggests factors at play in Bruce and Cass's relationship that he hadn't been aware of before. Willful ignorance, maybe. 

All ignorance, he had come to consider, was willful. 

The knife flying at him with dazzling speed through the trees is beautiful. He deflects it thoughtlessly, not letting it unduly grab the focus of his mind. He blocks the kick before knowing it was there, and he is vaguely interested when he finds that his fist has connected with Shiva's ribs almost at the right place.

Then he realizes his chest has been hit half a second ago, stopping his heart. That he is indubitably going to die in the next few seconds is less interesting that the fact that Shiva looks actually tired.

He hasn't been concerned about dying for weeks.

After all, Shiva _has_ been killing him daily. Her idea of training is as unique as everything else about her.

Darkness closes over him.

And then it lifts, softly and with only moderately grueling pain. Shiva's equivalent of CPR is surprisingly efficient.

The kiss of life turns gradually into another kind of kiss.

This, too, is part of his training.

He has a few hypothesis about why she is training him, and why she is doing it like this. He plans to discuss them later with Bruce while reviewing the videos.


End file.
